Payout gate for a gaming device

ABSTRACT

A payout gate for a gaming device, which comprises a gaming panel supporting several payout gates, each gate comprising two pins fastened to a bearer, which pins form between themselves for a coin moving along the gaming panel an inlet into a sensor operating a machinery for distributing payouts, and a tightening means fastening the bearer to the gaming panel, in order to fasten the pins to the gaming pane with a constant tightness, the tightening means comprises a tightening part to be fastened firmly in a constant position with respect to the gaming panel and a spring means situated between the tightening part and the bearer and pressing the bearer axially flexibly against the gaming panel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a payout gate for a gaming deviceprovided with a gaming panel supporting several payout gates, each gatecomprising

two pins projecting from a level of the gaming panel, forming betweenthemselves for a coin or a token moving along the gaming panel an inletinto a sensor operating a machinery for distributing payouts,

a bearer for supporting the pins and

a tightening means fastening the bearer to the gaming panel.

Various gaming devices are known, in which payout gates of the typementioned are used in order to control the operation of the game, suchas a machinery for distributing payouts, a mechanism for scoring pointsor another actuating mechanism, depending on whether a coin hit alongthe gaming panel passes through a payout gate or not. Therefore, a coindoes not only mean metal coins, but also various tokens and similar,usually round plate-like metal pieces. However, the invention will bedescribed in the following for the sake of clearness in connection witha gaming device in which a coin is hit along the gaming panel by meansof a hitting device and depending on how the coin runs the player eitherlooses the stake or wins. In the upper part of the panel there arepayout gates, which lead to a sensor operating the machinery fordistributing payouts. When the coin passes through a gate, the playerwins a certain sum, and when the coin passes beside the gate, the playerlooses his stake.

The height and/or inclined position of the inlet formed by the pair ofpins of a payout gate has a substantial influence on how difficult it isfor the player to get a coin hit through the payout gate in the gamingpanel. In order to change and adjust the payout proportion in a gamingdevice as well as in connection with the maintenance of the gamingdevice, it is necessary to detach the pins of the payout gate and torefasten them to the gaming panel in a new position.

Such an easily adjustable payout gate is described in Finnish Patent37712. In the gate structure described, the pin bearer can be adjustedinto various positions and locked by means of a wing nut to a screwprojecting from the back surface of the gaming panel. By turning thewing nut the bearer is tightened with a suitable tightness against thegaming panel.

However, a drawback of such a known payout gate is that a tightening ofthe gate carried out manually usually remains very inaccurate. It hasturned out that the tightness of the fastening of the gate has aninfluence on the resilience of the pins, which again has a substantialeffect on the tendency of the gate to allow also other coins to passthrough the gate than those coming accurately between the pins and thushas an effect also on the payout proportion of the gate. A gate causinga coin hitting a pin to rebound and preventing the coin from passingthrough the inlet between the pins can, tightened to another tightness,dampen the kinetic energy of a coin hitting the pin in the same mannerand cause the coin to fall towards the inlet and further through it. Totighten the known payout gate to an appropriate tightness dependsgreatly on the experience of the person attending to the maintenance,because it is difficult to define the degree of tightness accurately bymeans of instructions. Therefore, differences exist between gamingdevices, which differences are difficult to foresee or compensate. Thisis a remarkable problem, because the influence of the fasteningtightness of the gate on the payout proportion is up to 20%.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of this invention is to provide a payout gate avoiding thedrawback mentioned above and making it possible to tighten the gate tothe same tightness each time when the positions of the pins are changedand in connection with the maintenance of the gate. This object isachieved by means of a payout gate according to the invention,characterized in that the tightening means comprises a tightening partarranged to be fastened firmly in a constant position with respect tothe gaming panel, and a spring means situated between the tighteningpart and the bearer of the pins and pressing the bearer axially flexiblyagainst the gaming panel.

The invention is based on the idea that the bearer of the pins ispressed by the spring means against the gaming panel by means of thetightening part to be fastened to the gaming panel. In this way thetightening part can always be tightened manually "to the bottom", sothat a supporting surface is provided for the spring means, whichsupporting surface is always located in the same position with respectto the gaming panel, irrespective of whether the tightening part istightened more tightly or more loosely against said supporting surface.Consequently, the tightness of the tightening part does notsubstantially influence the spring force directed by the spring means onthe bearer. Because it is easy to manufacture spring means, e.g. helicalsprings, with a desired resilience and accurate dimensions, the gate canbe fastened with a constant tightness and the gate pins provided with aconstant resilience, respectively, which is necessary in order to securethat the payout proportion remains constant.

In the following, the invention is explained more closely referring tothe drawing enclosed, in which

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a known gaming device provided with payoutgates according to the invention, and

FIGS. 2 and 3 show an enlarged axial section of a preferable embodimentof the payout gate along line II--II of FIG. 1 from above and from theside.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As to the construction and operation, the gaming device shown in FIG. 1of the drawing corresponds to the gaming device described in FinnishPatent 63123. Therefore, only those parts of the gaming device areexplained in this connection which relate to the present invention.

The gaming device comprises a vertical gaming panel 1 and a hittingdevice 2 at one side thereof. The gaming panel comprises severalhorizontal payout gates 3 at a distance from each other and below eachgate there is a sensor 4 actuating a machinery 5 for distributingpayouts in the gaming device. The gaming panel is covered by a glasssheet 6 in such a way that inbetween remains a space 7 for coins 8 tomove along the gaming panel. A coin is hit along the gaming panel fromthe hitting device in such a way that the coin moves along the gamingpanel and falls downwards at the same time, as shown with broken lines.The coin then either passes through one of the payout gates or passesbesides them.

The payout gate 3 is mainly mounted behind the gaming panel. The gatecomprises a bearer 9 for two parallel pins 10 projecting therefrom and atightening means 11, by which the bearer is fastened to the gamingpanel. The gaming panel comprises three holes 12 for each pin and thepins can be pushed alternatively through one pair of holes to extendinto the space 7 at a short distance from the glass sheet when thebearer is pressed against the back surface of the gaming panel. The pinsform between themselves an inlet 13 dimensioned to allow a coin to passthrough.

The tightening means 11 of the gate comprises a socket-like base part 15stationarily fastened to the gaming panel by a screw 14 and extendingthrough a central hole of the bearer, and a knob-like tightening part 16turned detachably on said screw and being provided with a flange 17.Between the tightening part and the bearer there is a helicalcompression spring 18.

The base part comprises an abutment 15a, against which the tighteningpart is pressed with its end face 16a, the tightening part being turnedon the screw to the bottom, i.e. against the abutment 15a. The bearer 9is dimensioned in such a way that between the tightening part and thebearer remains a flexing space A, when the spring presses the beareragainst the gaming panel. The length and the resilience of the springare manufactured in such a way that the pins 10 will have the desiredflexibility when the spring presses the bearer against the gaming panel.

It is noticed that the tightness by which the tightening part 16 istightened against the base part 15, when the tightening part is turnedinto contact with the abutment 15a, does not substantially influence theaxial position of the flange 17. Therefore, the spring presses thebearer against the gaming panel always with the same spring force, whenthe tightening part is turned to the bottom. The flexing space A isneeded in order that the gate would stand vibrations caused by hard use.The flexing space must not be so big as to enable the pin to yield intothe gaming panel so much that a coin could pass between the glass sheetand the pin end. The pin end must not extend into contact with the glasssheet either.

The drawing and the description relating thereto are only meant tovisualize the idea of the invention. As to the details, the constructionof the invention can vary within the scope of the claims. Thus, it ispossible that the socket-like base part 15 is formed directly in onepiece with the gaming panel or that the tightening part 16 extends asfar as to the back surface of the gaming panel, the actual gaming panelfunctioning as the base part. Instead of a helical spring, also flexiblemeans of other kinds can be used, which can be manufactured with aconstant resilience.

I claim:
 1. A payout gate for a gaming device comprising a gaming panelsupporting several payout gates, each gate comprisinga two pins (10)projecting from a level of the gaming panel, forming between themselvesfor a coin or a token moving along the gaming panel an inlet into asensor operating a machinery for distributing payouts, a bearer forsupporting the pins a tightening means fastening the bearer to thegaming panel, said tightening means comprising a tightening partarranged to be fastened firmly in a constant position with respect tothe gaming panel and a spring means situated between the tightening partand the bearer of the pins and pressing the bearer axially flexiblyagainst the gaming panel.
 2. A payout gate according to claim 1, whereina base part is stationarily fastened to the gaming panel and thetightening part is arranged to be detachably fastened against the basepart in order to press the spring means against the bearer of the pins.3. A payout gate according to claim 2, wherein a screw is projectingfrom the base part and the base part comprises an abutment, againstwhich the tightening part is turned on the screw axially stationary. 4.A payout gate according to claim 2, wherein, between the tightening partand the bearer, a flexing space is provided allowing the bearer to moveaxially flexibly with respect to the tightening part under the influenceof the spring means.
 5. A payout gate according to claim 4, in which aglass sheet is positioned in front of the gaming panel substantially ata distance from the gaming panel corresponding to the coin thickness,said flexing space and the distance of the pin end from the glass sheet(6) in the operating position of the pins are together smaller than thethickness of the coin.
 6. A payout gate according to claim 2, whereinthe spring means is a helical spring.
 7. A payout gate according toclaim 6, wherein the base part is socket-like and fastened to the gamingpanel by means of a screw, that the tightening part is formed by aflanged threaded knob, the flange of which forms a stop for the helicalspring surrounding the knob and the opposite end forms an end face, bywhich the knob is pressed against an abutment of the base part and whichrestricts the axial flexible movement of the bearer and that the basepart extends through the bearer.
 8. A payout gate according to claim 2,the base part is formed by the gaming panel.